


Conversations around a lighter

by RainonyourBack



Series: Shaman King Shorts [3]
Category: Shaman King (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Awful Fathers, Dysfunctional Family, Dysfunctional Relationships, Father-Daughter Relationship, Fire, Gen, Smoking, Talking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-14
Updated: 2019-05-14
Packaged: 2020-03-05 13:44:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18829855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RainonyourBack/pseuds/RainonyourBack
Summary: Marco is known for being as hard-headed as a rock. Mikihisa takes a crack at it. Hao is not amused and does what he does best: sets annoyances on fire.





	Conversations around a lighter

**Author's Note:**

  * For [The Shaman King server](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=The+Shaman+King+server).



From inside he could hear cheering.

Part of him felt uncomfortable leaving Jeanne among these children who knew neither rules nor boundaries, but she looked like she was having fun and he felt like he might explode were he to remain inside any longer. Just a cigarette break, he told himself. Nothing more. She would be safe long enough for him to take a cigarette break.

At least the Shaman King wasn’t with them. To have to sit by while Hao preened and pranced among them was too much to ask of him. The battle was fought and they had won, of course, but never had he expected it to feel so hollow. Could it really be called victory when all they had was a short respite?

“Ah. I figured I would find you here. Too much excitement for the likes of us, am I right?”

Marco turned his head sharply, but managed to avoid drawing on the oncoming man. Old reflexes died hard, and the man’s voice was too close to his sons’.

“Mikihisa, is that it,” he said quietly, pretending to ask, as if he didn’t already know everything there was to know about the man.

“You got that right. May I sit?”

Marco considered the patio that was very much not his and nodded curtly. The masked man hopped down with entirely too much noise and grace. There was something a little inhuman about him, a way of moving that flirted with the animalistic. Marco wondered if it was on purpose, and concluded it probably was.

Fingering his own pockets, he drew out a poorly-rolled cigarette that honestly looked like it might have belonged on the curb. “Do you have a lighter?”

His voice was still grating. “Yes,” Marco said, without moving.

“May I borrow it?”

Marco considered it, and then passed the silver object to Mikihisa. It took him a few tries to get it going, and then he coughed loudly.

Marco strove not to get overly annoyed.

“People worry,” Mikihisa added, as if on afterthought, “that smoking with the mask would set it on fire. But I’ve learned over the years. And I don’t do it that often. It would be really insulting to smoke on top of a mountain.”

Marco blinked at that. He didn’t really follow, and didn’t really care to.

“Seems the little ones are bonding well. It’s nice to know there’s nothing to worry about, isn’t it?”

Well, there was certainly a lot Marco worried about, so the bird-man was really out of it, uh.

“My lady is very kind. She indulges Lyserg a lot.” Perhaps too much. She wanted him to have fun with his friends, so she smiled and she talked and she pretended not to be any different from any of them.

“Is she still?”

“What?”

“The lady?”

Marco frowned.

“Ah, this is perhaps a little forward. I meant no disrespect. It’s just nice to see Tamao have a friend.”

“It was forward.” Marco wasn’t sure what ‘it’ was. Still, it had to have been forward.

And yet. “I am glad my lady has taken to her. Tamao seems like a good child.”

Even if Jeanne saw the older girl as a charity case, she did visibly like to interact with her. And Tamao was much more acceptable than any of the boys. More subdued, more respectful, less chaotic.

“Glad we’re on the same page. I took Tamao under my wing years ago, but I never had the… I wasn’t available for her. I cut myself from her, both in body and mind. And she’s… I think she’s a very lonely child. Two birds and one stone, isn’t that nice?”

Marco narrowed his eyes, but Mikihisa didn’t give him time to react. “It is hard, isn’t it, to see them outgrow us? It was to be expected for Yoh – everyone wanted, nay, needed him to be great, so he was. Tamao, well… she was allowed to fail, so she did. But she’s growing up at her own pace.”

“You’re drunk, aren’t you,” Marco said with a sigh, although he knew very well it couldn’t be the case. He knew that particular escape all too well to miss it in another person. And yet… “Is there a point to this?”

“Many, though you’re maybe not ready for all of them. I just thought, father to father…”

It took Marco entirely too long to understand what Mikihisa meant.

“I have no blood relation to her. She is not –“

“Before you say something you do not mean, Tamao isn’t my blood daughter either. My oldest blood son did that to me,” and the man knocked lightly on his mask with the lighter he had yet to give back. “But he doesn’t need me. Tamao and Jeanne still need tethers to this realm. I know I have responsibilities to face, but will you?”

Marco eyed his lighter. “I am not here for a lecture.”

“Then why are you here?”

“Beg your pardon?”

“You could have stayed up there. Waited for rebirth. Instead you came back, and you stayed with her. You know she needs you, is my guess. Well, she did say it pretty explicitly, didn’t she?”

Anger surged slowly, like lava coursing down from his head to his entire body. “I find it rich that someone like you would give a lecture on the subject. Didn’t you drop both of your beloved children onto your wife’s parents?”

Mikihisa paused. “Ah, so you know.”

“Oh, trust me, I know all about you and your failures.” It felt good to hurt. Marco had always known it, and perhaps it spoke to his character that he had never stopped to consider why. But he was _right_.

“If you hadn’t fucked up at the beginning we wouldn’t be in this situation. We wouldn’t be held hostages by a mad king and –

“And you wouldn’t have her, and she wouldn’t have you, right?”

Marco seethed in silence.

“Look, I know. You’re right. My failures started this whole thing and if I could go back… Well, that’s the rub, isn’t it? I wouldn’t have found Tamao. Yoh wouldn’t be who he is. He wouldn’t _be_ anyone because he would be dead. I have started to consider perhaps this wasn’t the worst mistake to make.” He didn’t give Marco to react, being much too taken with his speech. “Take it from a guy who failed all of his kids and don’t fail her further. She deserves a good dad. They all do.”

Silence.

“Ah, see? You agree with me.”

Marco blinked.

“Your mask is on fire,” he observed coolly.

“And your coat is too,” said a third voice from behind. “You are both absolute morons and I can’t wait for them to actually outgrow you.”

And the two mediocre dads were too busy beating fire out of themselves to see Hao prance into the festivities.

**Author's Note:**

> So this started as a response for the SK discord server's Hunger Games prompt game. It turned into... something else. I'd say some attempt at a character study, but since Marco Refused to contribute to the conversation it would require some more talking. Maybe later!
> 
> I love Marco but he's not shining in this piece. Tis the way of things, it appears.  
> Let me know what you thought!


End file.
